Tuesday, 23 August 2016

THE CHAPEL OF St. HUBERTUS - an update

It has been a week since the first WIP post. In the meantime I have done the following:

The main entrance. This one is a double door. The process and materials are the same as for the side door. I put the Waywode coat of arms above it (they are the noble family that had this structure built). I sculpted the shield and copied the boar from a Bretonnian knight helmet. There is space on either side of it that will hopefully be filled with symmetrical reliefs of wodewoses. If I fail to sculpt that I'll have to come up with an alternative.

My next step was building up a roof over this part.

I proceeded by covering the rest of the bare polystyrene parts with planks. The planked area above the door will get more detail at a later point.

The protrusions on the side of the chapel are done apart from the roof tiles and windowpanes. The latter will be inserted after after painting. The deer skull is a green stuff copy of a bit from Mierce Miniatures. Antlers are from the same company. It is not glued in place yet (it's temporarily being held in place with a pin) because it would get in the way when painting.

First of the wooden posts that will surround the chapel. It is scratch-built from balsa, card, pins, deer skulls (plaster copies this time) and a length of chain from my bits box.

This is it after painting. I'm happy with what I managed to achieve here. The only
thing I don't like are the metal rings, which to me seem too thin for
this diametre. A trip to the hobby shop for some better rings is in
order before I get to work on the rest of the posts.

* * *

This is where we are at the moment. Stay tuned for more. Again - all comments, questions, critiques and suggestions are much appreciated.

Tuesday, 16 August 2016

THE CHAPEL OF St. HUBERTUS

The chapel I mentioned earlier is is finally in progress. I'm building it from scratch, and it is my largest and most complex attempt at a scenery piece so far.

My coloured sketch. However, the building is actually based on an illustration by Paul Bonner.

It's just
awesome. I've had a desire to build this for a while, but I could find
no purpose for it. Now it will get built, although in adapted form. I
have to get away from the Scandinavian aesthetics of it and add details
that will identify it as a sacral structure dedicated to St. Hubertus,
patron of hunters. Since I'm not recreating the illustration "to the
letter", I didn't bother to get all the proportions right.

The base: two layers of polystyrene.

After adding more refinement and detail to the base, I built the rough shape of the tower and entrance.

Ground floor takes shape around the tower. It's balsa wood. I glued the wall planks before moving on to the roof because it would get in the way.

The part of the roof that protrudes horizontally was next. Every plank placed individually.

Skeleton of the roof. Since it won't be visible at all when I'm done, I didn't bother to make it pretty.

Some plaster+PVA+paint applied on top of the roof planks to fill holes in between (as well as to some other areas). The first layer of the roof is masking tape. Roof tiles will later go on top. So many roof tiles...

View from a lower angle.

This is a decorative carving of a wose head. I sculpted it from air-drying clay and cast copies in plaster. It's not as good as I hoped it would be, but it works.

Again, the roof was left off from this part because it would get in the way when building and painting the side entrance. I made the door from balsa, plasticard and pins. Glued the decorative head carvings in place on either side of the door.

The side door, mostly painted. I can finish it later. Now I can add roof over it.

Sunday, 7 August 2016

According to legend, the Chapel of St. Hubertus in the Waywode Hunting Grounds is guarded by a group of supernatural beings. Among those creatures are a handful of Wodewoses, feral people from ancient times. These particular Woses were tamed by the Waywode ancestor who had the chapel built, and remain bound to it to protect it. They are said to inhabit the surrounding woods.

INSPIRATION and REFERENCE

Wildman, or woodwose/wodewose, is a figure that appears as an allegorical device in 13th-15th century European art and literature (and as decoration in architecture and as a heraldic device). It is depicted as a humanoid creature with a hirsute body that inhabits wild places - forests and mountains, where it dwells in caves. The wildman is naked, with hair covering the body except the face, feet and hands (sometimes also knees, elbows and/or breasts). The head hair is longer than body hair (like head hair and beards in humans). Usually carries a wooden club or mace.

Albrecht Dürer. 1499.

The woodwose of Medieval literature used to be a human being but went feral when separated from God's grace. The degeneration might be due to insanity, being brought up by animals or some great trouble in life. This instantly reminded me of king Nebuchadnezzar, and the time that he lost his wits and lived in the wild like an animal for years. Just like the Babylonian king, a wildman is able to get better and return to civilized society. The fuzzy body and fuzzy mind are both a part of an acquired state which can be reversed.

Nebuchadnezzar. Artwork by William Blake.

There are wildman figures in European rural folklore as well. Unlike the literary ones, they are not of human origin but a separate natural species or supernatural spirit. The folkloristic wildmen are described variously as ugly, unable to speak, supernaturally strong, having a savage temper, posessing knowledge of plants and mastery of animals. In many cases they are anthropofagous. The males have a habit of abducting human children and women, while wildwomen like to captivate human men (often using shape-changing to accomplish that).

Medieval depiction of a wildwoman.

Hunting and capture of wildmen appear widely as a folk dramatic performance (and we can find that trope in Medieval iconography, too). The wildmen of art and literature most probably came from folklore and were then transformed. Other possible sources/influences are the Bible, writings from classical antiquity of mythical creatures and gods like Pan and satyrs, and contemporary descriptions of encounters with primates.

THE CONVERSION

The base miniature is a plastic Plaguebearer. I filed down the gut and cut off its legs. The head came from an old Empire State Trooper. The shield is from the current State Troops set. The rest is green stuff.

* * *

An update on the corpse markers for the Troglodytes. I think I have enough now.

I finally have all I need for the chapel, so my next move will be starting work on it.

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